He monitors the truck driver's vitals, checks his medical history and asks detailed questions about the pain.

It sounds like your average emergency room scene but there's one big catch.

Mr Clulow is lying on a hospital bed in Wyalkatchem, while Dr Herrington is sitting at a desk in Kalgoorlie - more than 400 kilometres away.

This is emergency telehealth and it could be the future of medicine in rural Australia.

Brave new world

Telehealth is defined as the delivery of health-related services through telecommunications technology.

WA doctors, specialists and psychologists already use it to hold appointments with isolated patients across the state.

But in a WA first, the Country Health Service is using the technology to guide staff through medical emergencies too.

High-definition cameras and computer monitors have been installed in eight emergency rooms across the Wheatbelt using a $36.5 million dollar Royalties for Regions grant.

Sites include Wyalkatchem, Southern Cross, Northam and Cunderdin.

Trial leader Dr Herrington is one of several Perth-based specialists who're on call to beam themselves into emergency rooms from Friday to Sunday.

"When remote hospitals have a patient that needs urgent emergency attention and a local GP is not available, they call us on a 1800 number, we push a button on the pad in front of us and we're in the room," he said.

"If someone needs a life threatening procedure it might be done within seconds of turning the equipment on."

If the situation is serious enough, the Royal Flying Doctor Service is asked to transfer the patient to Perth.

Dr Herrington says staff were initially sceptical.

"There was a lot of reluctance for people to get in front of a camera because it didn't feel natural," he said.

"But it was encouraging to us that as soon as they engaged and got in the room, the cameras disappear out of site for them.

"The nurses have really embraced this."

A system under strain

It's a good thing, too.

The tyranny of distance and a severe shortage of doctors in country WA means accessing medical help is a challenge at the best of times.

When the situation is urgent, patients are almost always flown to Perth because remote hospitals are ill-equipped to handle them.

The Health Department says WA needs an extra 300 full-time doctors to meet growing demand and bring it up to speed with the rest of Australia.

Rural towns like Wylkatchem are doing it especially tough, with only one GP servicing about 700 residents as well as surrounding communities.

The town's only GP Lili Costello has around 1200 patients on her books.

"I would say that the work load would be considered excessive for a city GP - it's quite normal for me to do 13 or 14 hour days," she said.

"No breaks, on call 24 hours a day, so it's a very difficult job for a solo practitioner."

Doctor Costello, who commutes from the South West once a week, is confident telehealth can fill in when she's not around and believes it may help to attract more doctors and nurses to the region.

"It eases the pressures on the town because while I'm away there are still emergency services available," said.

"There's a very small percentage of young nurses and doctors that relish emergency work, others are frightened of it.

"So once we advertise we have telehealth, perhaps more staff, especially junior staff, can come out."

Local nurse Marlenie Masacote agrees that having access to a doctor is a huge relief for staff at the hospital and their patients.

"It's very hard and there's a lot of pressure because you don't know what will arrive on your doorstep and you have to do everything on your own," she said.

"But now we can just dial the number, they appear on the screen right away and can lead us with what things to do."

So far, so successful

More than 300 patients have been treated since the trial began in August, with emergencies ranging from snake-bites and quad bike accidents to serious car crashes.

Judy Hunter rolled her car on a remote road while driving from her farming property to work recently.

She managed to get out of the car and call an ambulance, which took her to Wyalkatchem Hospital.

"The shock didn't hit me for a while and I thought I was fine," she said.

"But then they took me into the trauma ward and I was like oh my gosh, maybe I'm not fine.

"It wasn't until they got the doctor up on the screen that I went thank god, I'm going to be OK because there's actually a doctor here."

The Country Health Service's Executive Director of Clinical Reform, Doctor Felicity Jefferies, is impressed with the amount of money and time saved.

"The big thing is we haven't had to transfer nearly as many patients from small country towns to bigger country towns or Perth, so we've saved on patient travel costs," she said.

Doctor Jefferies says the trial proved it's worth during a horrific fatal car accident near the town of Southern Cross recently.

"We managed to get RFDS to the scene really quickly, and in that time 10 injured patients were treated with the local nurses through telehealth," she said.

"The debrief from those involved was that it was just like having a doctor in the room and when the RFDS turned up they said they'd never come to a site like this, so calm and well-managed."

Potential risks

The Australian Medical Association wholeheartedly supports the trial but its president Doctor Richard Choong has raised several concerns.

"This technology is about assisting the communities that don't have a doctor and have staff on the ground which need medical advice," he said.

"But it should never be used to replace a doctor or think it's equivalent to having a doctor on site."

There are also concerns that nurses in remote outposts may be pressured to perform procedures they've never done before.

Doctor Herrington acknowledges it is an issue.

"When you're asking someone in a remote site to do something, you do have to think about the consequences, because as [with] everything in life and medicine there's risk involved," he said.

"There are times when difficult decisions have to be made and people sometimes will do things they normally wouldn't be asked to do.

"But the beauty of this is you share responsibility with the clinician in Perth or wherever we are.

"If we're asking someone to do something and guiding them through it, then we share responsibility.

"In fact, we probably take more for responsibility than the staff on site, so I think it makes the medico-legal risk a lot less and I think it's a safer situation for patients."

Where to from here?

The Wheatbelt trial will soon expand into the Goldfields, with more GPs on call for longer hours.

A full assessment of the program is due in January.

Dr Herrington says his dream is for every country town to have acute and non-acute telehealth equipment.

"So they can see their specialists about their diabetes or asthma and if they have an accident they can come in and be assisted by an emergency physician," he said.

Dr Jefferies is also keen to see the trial continue.

"There's no doubt the outcomes have been very positive so we will continue with it but we have to go through the whole details of value for money and what it means for the whole service," she said.

"But I think (continuing the trial) would be appropriate because one of the reasons doctors don't go to the country and nurses don't stay is that they feel very fragile being on their own and not having support from their colleagues.

"So this gives them support and I think it will make a huge difference to them."

For the time being at least, remote communities in the Wheatbelt can rest easy knowing the doctor is always in.

You have no doubt been hearing a lot about the Paris Agreement and know that it pertains to climate change, but are too embarrassed at this stage to ask for an overall explanation of what it's all about.